The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-07-27
The Republican Leaders. are
Playing q Game OfBluff.

New York Herald.
A gentleman writes TO ask if the
Herald will help him out of a per-
plexity. He says:
Can yon explain this st. Louis
muddlc2 | have supposed that the
Republicans went into the war be-
cause they We're determined that all
Americans should constitute one
people and one nation, And now
when that desirable result has been
reached they seem equally determin-
ed to keep the North and South
apart What in the name of com
mon sense does this mean2
Well, it means politics, and very
poor politics: that is all. There is
no common sense in it, much less is
there any patriotism, but as a piece
of demagogic strategy itihas its
value to the Rep6bliean lead
You need not be alarmed about it.
1t has no significance and will pro-
duee no results. Thepeople already
see that it is simply a game of bluff,
whose constituent elements consist
in equal parts of very loud talking,
three little palsies, bloody shirt,
which has at last outlived its use
fulness, and a few threats of person
al violence because the President
insists that the cruel war is over.
The organs of the Republican
party have only one motto, and if
you keep that in mind you will un-
derstand all the fine rhetorical ira
peze work which they are-now get
ting in. That motto is, "When the
bloody shirt goes to the laundry we
go to the cemetery of dead issues. !"
So far as the administration OF
the country goes, the Democrats are
firmly fixed m the drivers seat, the
obedient and willing team goes at a
good, honest rate up hill and down,
and the passengers are enjoying
themselves thoroughly. The ma
tional coach is being driven without
the financial jolts of the last twenty
years, and the mud holes are care
fully avoided. Republicans like
Blaine, Sherman and Foraker see
this, and are almost frantic. In 1884
they borrowed the trumpet OF
Gabriel and blew blast throughout
the land to the effect that if a Dem
ocratic coachman was allowed to
handle the reins there would be in
the near future the most awful up
set and the most terrible aggrega-
ton of bruises and broken bones
and other disasters that the human
mind could conceive. Imagine Their
horror, therefore, when they awoke
to the fact that the finest coachmen
in the country are Democrats that
the people are convinced of this fact
and therefore relegated the Repub-
licans to reserved seats on the inside
for the indefinite future.
OF course, the Republican party
wants to get back to Washington.
That is perfectly natural and it is
perfectly proper. Ifthey have any
thing to say to the voters of this
country which is worth listening tc
the people are ready to hear. For
after all, what the great body OF
Americans want is stable, an hon
est, an economical and a peaceable
government. They do not care a
pins worth for a party as such,
neither the Republican nor the dem
ocratic, but they do care a good
deal for their commercial interests,
for general prosperity and for every
thing which goes to make us a
strong nation. They invited the
Republican leaders to step down
simply because their trading pro-
pensities were too fully developed.
They discovered that public office,
which should be a public trust, was
priced as a bartender prizes lemon
for the juice that can be got out
of it; that there were numerous pol
itical rings which were robbing the
people of the national domain, using
the Pension Office to buy votes
with and spending scores of mill
ions on a navy which was somehow
all Sin your eye" In word, the
people were stirred, and in Novem-
Der, 1884, they said SO.
But now, on the eve of another
Presidential election, if the Repub-
licans have anything to offer, why,
the people are quite willing to look
the goods over and pass Judgment
on them. Their cry is that they
want to save the Union, but when
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